Renkus-Heinz Iconyx solves cathedral-style sound challenges
Published: WORSHIP
WORLD: Cignal Systems has completed a sound system installation into the cathedral-style Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Florrisant, Missouri. The company selected a Renkus-Heinz steerable line-array to overcome the reverberation and intelligibility challenges that the building presented.
The Gothic style 600-seat hall was designed in the spirit of great cathedrals, with soaring walls, stone floors, high arched ceilings, and ornate stained glass windows. According to the church, it's a lush, reverberant setting for choir and organ, but highly problematic for spoken word intelligibility.
‘Although it's not a large room, its acoustical character is very much like that of a cathedral,’ explained Gary Haselhorst, president of Cignal Systems. ‘Their issues are similar to that of a cathedral, on a smaller scale - it's a very reverberant space, and intelligibility suffers.’ The church's previous sound system, with 12 pillar-mounted cabinets, apparently only added to the cacophony.
Cignal removed the existing speakers and replaced them with a single Iconyx digitally steered line array column from Renkus-Heinz. ‘We had recently used the Iconyx in the St. Louis Basilica, and when the monsignors heard how well it worked in the cathedral, they knew there was hope for theirs as well,’ added Mr Haselhorst.
A single IC24-R-II column was mounted on a front pillar, just left of the altar. ‘We were able to achieve very uniform coverage with just one speaker,’ said Mr Haselhorst. ‘We ordered the cabinet painted to match the brickwork, and the Monsignor's sister painted some marbled accents on it. It blends in almost invisibly with the architecture.’
Commenting on the system performance post installation, Mr Haselhorst reports that it has solved the room's intelligibility problems and more. ‘They run the praise band through the Iconyx as well, and it sounds great. We took out twelve speakers and replaced them with one Iconyx. They're very pleased.’